Machine for making ice-roads



(No Model.)

G. T. GLOVER.

MACHINE POR MAKING ICB ROADS. No. 426,006'. Patented Apr. 22, 1890.

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UNTTE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE T. GLOVER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MACHINE FOR MAKING ICE-ROADS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 426,006, dated April22, 1890.

(No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. GLOVER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Traction-Engines forMaking Ice-Roads-and Hauling Logs, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to an improvement in traction-engines designed forservice in the lumber regions and adapted for melting down the snowalong a roadway, so as to permit the melted snow in freezing to form anice-road over which the machine may run and haul a series of loadedlog-sledges.

The principal object of my invention is to facilitate and insure theheating of the traetion-wheels and to keep them during operation at atemperature which will insure the melting down of the snow and preventthe adherence of snow or ice to the wheels.

Further objects are to provide certain imn proved details serving toincrease the efficiency of traction -engines for making icen roads.

In carrying out my invention I provide the traction-engine orice-roadenaking and loghauling machine with one or more hollow orchambered wheels and let into the same either exhaust or live steam, butpreferably exhaust. For the broader purpose of my invention the wheel orwheels can be made hollow or chambered in any suitable way and steamintroduced at any desired pointas, for example, steam could beintroduced through a hollow axle having outlets opening into the chamberof the wheel, or in place of such arrangement steam can be let into thewheel from the side thereof. Should steam be admitted through the axle,the end walls of the chamber could be rigid with the rim of the wheel,or the rim could be made hollow and. connected by hol low spokes with ahollow axle or journal; but as a preferred mode, constituting a specialfeature of improvement, I close the space Within the usual wheel -rim bystationary end plates, which, while allowing the free rotation of thewheel, constitute the end walls of a chamber within the wheel. By sucharrangement a steamdnlet pipe can be connected with one plate, so todischarge into the wheelchamber, while the opposite plate may be provided with an outlet, although, if desired, one end plate can be maderigid with the wheel and the other end plate held stationary by somesuitable fixture on the machine, in which latter case the inlet and theoutlet pipes can both be connected with the stationary end plate.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l represents in side elevation atraction-engine with my improvement applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a sectiontaken transversely through the hood or casing herein employed to providean open-bottom chamber in which the driving traction-wheels arearranged, said wheels being shown in elevation. Figu represents, on asomewhat larger scale, a section taken centrallythrou gh one of thetraction-wheels on a plane coincident with the axis of the wheel. Fig. 4represents a section through a couple of hollow tractionwheels.

In said drawings, A indicates the enginetruck, which can bemounted onwheels or runners, but preferably on runners. The enginetruck carries asuitable boiler, a boilerfurnace, and an engine, which latter ispreferably of the double type.

B denotes the frame or body of a traction propelling attachment, whichis hinged to the rear end Lof the engine-truck and provided with acouple of tractioirwlieels. The trac tion-wheels are arranged within anopen-b0ttom steam-chamber O, formed by a suitably constructed hood orcasing c, which can be supported either from the frame of the trac t-ionpropelling attachmentorfromthe enginetruck.

The traction propelling attachment herein shown is similar inconstruction and operation to the traction propelling attachmentdescribed in my application, Serial No. 275,400, for Letters Patent ofthe United States, and the hood or casing herein arranged to provide asteam-chamber which serves -to inclose the traction-wheels is similar inprinciple and use to that embodied in Letters Patent of the UnitedStates No. 3G0,5Si,hcretofore granted me, and hence particulardescription of said members need not be herein made. In the machineherein shown, however, I provide .hollow or steanrchamberedtraction-wheels,

and in place of discharging steam directly into an openfbottom chamberin which the trac- IOO vss

tion-wheels are preferably arranged I iirst discharge steam into thehollow wheels, from which latter the steam may escape into the chamber,whereby it will iirst warm the wheels from the interior thereof and thendischarge into a chamber in which the-wheels are a1- ranged.

Regardless of theA chamber and construetion of machine involving thetraction-wheels, I propose discharging steam into hollow or chamberedtraction-wheels employed in any construction of machine suitable formaking ice-roads from snow-roads; and in this connection it will beunderstood that, broadly considered, steam could be let into the wheelsin various ways-as, for example, through hollow axles, or in the wayherein shown and hereinafter particularly described.

As a special and preferredimprovementin the aforesaid direction, eachtraction-wheel D is chambered substantially as shown in Fig. 3. In saidfigure the space which is bounded by the rim of the wheel, and which isbut partially occupied by the hub and spokes, is closed at the ends ofthe Wheel by the end walls or plates d, which are rigid with somesuitable fixture on the machine, such as the frame of vthe tractionpropelling attachment. The plates d are adaptedto permit the freeoperation of the wheel, and hence may be bored centrally to receive theends of the hub. The plates d can also be made sufficiently large to lapor lie in close proximity to the edges of the Wheel-rim, whereby asuitablytight steam-chamber is formed within the wheel. Steam can be letinto the hollow wheels through steam-inlet pipes E and discharged fromthe wheels through ports or discharge pipes or nozzles F, it being withsuch arrangement desirable to connect the said two pipes, respectively,with one and the other of the two plates d. Should, however, it bedesired, both pipes could connect with but one of the plates d, and insuch case the other plate could be made rigid with or formed as a partof the wheel, although the arrangement shown is simpler and moreeconomical, since an ordinary construction of tractionwheel can beemployed.

The plates d are herein shown supported from'the frame of the tractionpropelling attachment by supports d', arranged to straddle the wheels;but I do not limit myself to such arrangement, since various supportingmedia can be employed, and where one or more of such hollow wheels is orare allotted to the engine-truck the plates can be supported from thelatter.

As a further feature of improvement, I may arrange the discharge croutlet pipes or nozzles F so as to discharge against the chainwheel G,herein employed for a drive-chain g, that connects the axle of thetraction-wheels with a driving mechanism on the enginequite warm andsnow or ice prevented from adhering thereto. In conclusion, it may benoted that by first discharging steam into a 1 chambered wheel not onlyis the wheel propverly warmed, but the steam condensed to a considerableextent within the wheel, whereof its chamber serves, therefore, as acondensingchamber. In this Way loss of steam is prevented and the waterof condensation so collected that it can be let onto the road, where itwill rapidly freeze.

In Fig. 4. the traction-wheels D consist of heavy hollow cylindersclosed at both ends and provided with hubs for a suitable'axle, whichcan be made hollow and connected at its ends with steam-pipes. In sucharrangement the hollow axle can be provided with steam -outlets withinthe wheels, and the wheels can be provided with outlets formed throughtheir inner opposing ends at points near their peripheries.

Vhat I claim as my invention is- 1. In a tractor for making ice-roads,the combination, with a suitable source of steamsupply, of atraction-wheel adapted and arranged .for running upon an ice-road andprovided with a steam-chamber, which is closed with the exception of aninlet, which is connected with the source of steam-supply, and an outletfor thel escape of water of condensation and waste steam, saidsteam-chamber being adapted to contain the steam, so as to cause theheating of the wheel to an extent to melt down the snow, and therebypermit the formation of an ice-bed for the wheel to run- 3. Thecombination, 'with the chain-wheel,`

on the traction-wheel axle, of the tractionwheel having a chamberconnected with a source for supplying steam thereto and an outlet-pipeleading from the chamber in the traction-wheel and arranged to dischargeagainst the said chain-wheel, substantially as described.

4:. The combination, in a machine for making ice-roads, of atraction-wheel D with plates d, supported independently of the wheel andclosing the same to provide a steamchamber, substantially as described.

GEORGE T. GLOVER. Witnesses:

CHAs. G. PAGE, L. L. PAGE.

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